Source Code. Hey, it’s Jake Gylenhaal taking Keanu Reeves to the land of laymen’s terms. To be brutally honest, it was like watching the Coles notes version of the Matrix. One of my best buddies told me “I had to see this movie cuz Duncan Jones rocks. He’s the guy who did “Moon”. Well, I didn’t see “Moon” and I don’t really find a lot of director’s work different from the others. I honestly only have a few faves: Tarantino, Bruckheimer, Woo, Tony Scott. You know, the guys who can make a big screen movie loud and obnoxious? It’s not to say a guy like Edward Burns isn’t good. I like his stuff, too. Source Code really looked like a movie that would keep the action rolling beginning to end. But once I sat down, I realized there was a computer programmer and Quantum Physics major behind the scenes pushing play on this one. Gylenhaal was Colter Stevens. A guy who flew helicopters in Afghanistan. We found out he crashed, and lost most of his crew. Then he was put to work inside a government program. Of course, we don’t know this until he wakes up on a train for the second time doing the exact same thing. Hello, Groundhog Day! But, this isn’t a comedy. This government program was made by a math and computer genius, Dr. Rutledge. He has a team of military ‘computer geeks’ running this bank of computers from deep inside an Air Force base. The train has a bomb on it, bound for Chicago. It blows up. Like 4 times. Kills everybody. And every time it blows up, Colter Stevens gets ‘transported’ back to his ‘happy place’.
This is where he finds solace talking to Colleen Goodwin. A fellow Military Officer who tells him, “It’s okay, you screwed up this time, but we’ll send ya right back in there, and you can tell us who planted that bomb and why would they do something like that?” Now, you and I both know we would ask some pretty strong
questions if this happened to us. I mean, the first time I survived an explosion like the one in Source Code, I would probably thank my lucky stars I woke up dreaming. But, if I had someone telling me through a little computer screen I had to go right back in there, well, I would ask for something in return. Colter doesn’t do this until the end. So I giggled a little bit. Then I suspended disbelief cuz you know, it’s a movie.
So, Colter Stevens travels repeatedly back to the train. Back to the same spot in time. Then, searches for the clues to complete his mission. Oh, yeah, each time he wakes up on the train, the token ‘love interest’ is sitting right in front of him. Michelle Monaghan. Her name is Christina. He doesn’t know her last name though. In a Sixth Sense type of twist, we discover Colter’s a dead man computing. He actually died in that original chopper crash in Afghanistan, but this weird Quantum Physics Military Dude, Dr. Rutledge came up with a computer program that could attach to the brain of a recently deceased corpse, and plug into the ‘last 8 minutes’ of operation which every human brain has for ‘mortality storage’ when we die. It’s a stretch, but
it’s a cool theory in the movie. Rutledge says “the human brain will continue to function for 8 minutes after death”. Using some wicked smart algorithms, he comes up with a computer, some wires, and a dead soldier’s body inside a steel box, which probably is a metaphor for the physical hard drive we have on our desktops, I’m just guessing. Then, using quantum physics, and alternate realities, Dr. Rutledge thinks he’s found his perfect ‘specimen’ to attach his invention to. The problem is, Colter Stevens understands all that math. Plus, it’s Jake Gylenhaal. He knows how to swoon the ladies. And that’s exactly what he does to Colleen Goodwin, his commanding officer. He convinces her to let him go back to the train one last time to save Christina. Even though Dr. Rutledge said, “You can’t do that. You can’t change the alternate reality”. Well, this boy’s smart. He flew helicopters in the middle east, man. Quite frankly, Goodwin’s not liking the fact this Dr. Rutledge is treating her new friend like this. She hits ‘enter’ one last time, and sends him right back to the train. This time, though, Colter knows he’s dead. He sends an ‘alternate reality text’ to Goodwin. Then changes everything , including the detonating bomb. Goodwin then realizes her loyalties are not with crazy science guy. She unplugs the ‘machine’. We get a glimpse of Colter, inside the hard drive…. 'er….sorry, box. The back of his head is carved off exposing his brain plugged into wires. Oh, it’s only half of him too. The entire bottom half of his body was gone. We’re left assuming it was because of the accident. Don’t worry, though. In the alternate reality, Colter gets the girl, and keeps her. He’s really positive thinking though. Then, Goodwin actually received the ‘text from the alternate universe’. Weird. Overall, I liked it. Only giggled once. Because we see a train blow up 5 times!
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